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Well in finnish forums we are considered one of the best of lower mid teams where only Southampton and Swansea are over us in terms of football. (Everton and Newcastle are considered to be with big teams here) I dont know why our own english fans dont appreciate what we are doing, but for me example we haven''t been that bad at all, if our season haven''t been good in football terms that I expected. By league position and points we are quite much where we should be. So really hard to find out why we are moaning. And those who call me plastic and not local fan can go * themselves ^^ In my opinion if you can''t understand and accept realism in this league and stand behind the team you are more plastic than I ever could be. Ofc emotions run high and it is hard to see first half like against Newcastle, but most of their goal scoring situation came from still balls and player errors which gave our guys more and more pressure. At second half we were equal with bigger team again and nothing to moan about it.

Important point. After poor first half team did well to rise up. Also good changes from Hughton. Would have prefered Snoddy out instead of Pilkington, but I understand his choise because of our poor midfield display. Also changing Tettey was very important. Playing only Fer against Anita, Tiote and Sissoko and we would have gotten ripped in half. Elmander showed again that 2 pure strikers is wrong way to go and either play him or third midfielder when we get one back in line up again ^^ Can''t blame either Wolf or Hooper. Wolf did defend in our own box at times to get ball back upwards. Almost never see pure strikers do that. Hooper did what he could with the delivery he got, but was drifting a bit out of game. Passing is again the keyword. Every and each player needs to step up in this department.

First half we were poor second half we have been better team or at least equal. Some players thought need to improve and Hughton needs to get rid of that 4-4-2. Too bad we are still up to two midfielders with Bradders gone for 3 games. Well few minutes to go. Hopefuly Redmond goes and become a hero again ^^

Bah again the midfield is the problem. We have to play over whole midfield to get anything to going. We are still quite much in the game thought and our game haven''t been bad as some people think here. Our defence has been sleepy.. Both fullbacks have not been confident with the ball and Bassong have made few very poor touches too. Also ref is annoyingly inconsistent and Remy''s and Debuchy''s fouls were very soft when Wolfswinkle was took down by two hands near their box and we get nothing. Pilkington has been best of our players this far, but his passing could be better. I would sacrifice Snoddy for Tettey, if latter is fit for second half.

Hopefuly we can keep the game at their end as with Sissoko, Anita and Tiote their midfield and three good supporting players from Ben Arfa and their fullbacks will be dominant against Fer and Johnson and our supporting players Snoddy and Olsson. Martin probably will quite much hug the line so we are two man short from mid areas. Anyway if we can keep the ball at wings and make long attacks we have very good chances to take 3 points, but would be happy for draw too.

We can be certainly sure that we are not paying Quti +50k per week and Nocerino earns 1,5 millions after 48% tax where Jonas at least as far as I know have to pay taxes from weekly wage that is rumoured to be between 40-50k per week in newcastle and much less for us. And West Ham''s debt doesnt mean nothing. Real Madrid has over 300 million debt and still they have lot money behind the club.

Oh yeah and to add on, I wasn''t so keen for Quags either and see him in similar level signing than Jonas is.

Eh Le Juge how is Nocerino any better than Jonas? Milan outcast that Milan fans have cried out of the club more than our fans have cried Hughton. At the end decent one sided player and probably will do ok in West Ham, but quite equal in level with Jonas, but also in much greater wages. Argentina is no worse team than Italy and their last game for national team is quite much from same time. And last word wages is the key here. West Ham, Cardif etc have quite much money behind them. Still I havent seen any key signings except for Hull in this january. Guti, Nocerino, Boriello, Dempsey etc are more like squad strenghtening signings. Also I at least don''t want us to sign anyone just for getting more players. We have ok squad and only areas we are missing is key playmaker and 1 centre back more. Last one is possible for us in winter window, but I just cant see us finding a playmaker (neither advanced nore deeplying) with current market situation. Most likely we will see only one defensive signing more if even that and we will still do just fine compared those who sign for signing sake.

Ah true. Always forget that is impossible in England. Thanks

splutcho: Is it certain his loan doesn''t allow him to play? I tried to find it when we signed him, but couldn''t find anything about it and now I''m too lazy to google ^^

I personaly think too that Garrido is better passer and crosser, in midfield area, but to put it simple Olsson covers ground so much better, he can beat players and he cuts inside and most of all he gets back fast when ball is lose. We are so vulnerable when Garrido is in crossing position. Also I dont know why Olsson is blamed for poor positioning? He has been in right spots in defence area apart from few games. Few great goal line clearances and covering CB''s. In my opinion he has been far better than Garrido previous season and I always feel confident on our left wing with him around and I''m saying this and still thinking Garrido is very good left back for our level. Now with Guti in our lines I would definently prefer Olsson there. I would prefer 3 man midfield with Pilkington and Redmond starting as wingers and RvW in as a striker, but I''m very doubtful too see such formation, so my formation probably would be, if Tettey isn''t fully fit. ----------RvW------------------- -----------------Hooper-------- Guti-Bradders-Fer-Snoddy Olsson-Bass-Bennett-Martin But If Guti''s loan deal doesn''t allow him to play against Newcastle, Pilkington to start. But if I wouldn''t know Hughton and could pick the line up I would go for. Pilkington - RvW - Redmond -------Guti -----------Fer------- -------------Tettey--------------- Olsson-Bass-Bennett-Martin

We have nothing wrong with our strikers and definently not a place which would need any reinforcements. Dont get why so many people have fixation that we should have 5 strikers to get goals. Both RvW and Hooper are good players who will score, if our midfield start to provide them with chances.

I personaly think we will do just fine with this duo until the summer, but I agree that we should bee looking faster and a bit more ball confident version of Martin. He just always keeps his head down when he crosses and he has serious problems to get back when he bursts forward. One interesting option could be Celta de Vigo''s Hugo Mallo. Have had good season in Primera and Celta is one of those teams that can''t affordt to not sell if the bid is right. Also he would be in that category of players that should be in our reach. Not to mention he has been considered decent enough to play few games for spanish youth teams.

I''m expecting quite much eron tuhat blondhaired fullback. He really impressed me in our cup run and at the ens fullback is probably One of easiest spot to get chance at young age

If he has back injury no surprise he is walking just fine. It just doesnt mean he is anywhere near ready. Only Time will tell

Heh as a long haired fellow I stand behind Guti''s pony tail and strongly support every one of our players except CB''s grow longer hair. We had saying in my youth club that longer the hair, more creative player. Needless to say I had almost bald back then.

Only seen him play few times in Europa league, but have nothing to say about him. Most likely it is only wind up from Garrido transfer, but he is experienced defender who probably is somewhere near at level of Turner. So not exactly ugrade in my opinion, but could be decent option for getting more squad depth.

That fact just is more or less false as for example if you count Southampton victory as 4-4-2 you would have to count Tottenham and Aston Villa losses too. Or if you dont count them you would have to take away every victory where Elmander has played in as he doesnt ever play pure striker for us, if not last 10 mins of game when we are trailing. and in the other hand there is plenty of games where we have started with different system than which we end the game. In my opinion in pure 4-4-2 we dont get enough balls for our strikers and even in 4-4-1-1 our creativity is poor and we should be aiming for 3 man midfield. Now thought with Jonas we could get something more out of 4-4-2, but still in my opinion it takes most out of game Hughton tries to play.

In my opinion Becchio is ok player for certain situations, but he is so awfully slow and his touch and ball skills are under the bar of PL so he can''t be there in Elmander or previous season Holt/Kamara role, being mobile target man to be aimed for and linking the play further. As complete striker RvW and Hooper are just both a rank above him if not two. His only use would be sole target man when we are forcing opponent in their own box as he has more strenght and height than two others to fight against two CB''s and mayby one midfielder. We have now three strikers front of him for good reason and all four have a bit different role to play in our squad and Becchio''s role is lesser one. And to be back in the topic Hughton got it quite much right against Hull this time. Both subs were good choises. Those who say he should have brought Redmond just think how much posession would have been missed when he would have added his shots for those which went to back row. Pilkington is bit more clever team player with better crosses and there really wasnt that much room to dribble and shoot from the wing for Redmond.

We are nowhere near safe, but I have had all the time gut feeling we wont relegate this season even thought I was quite sure from the start it will be hard. I have followed finnish "neutral" football forum and pick up a comment that sums up quite much how neutrals there see the bottom half relegation fight. "Itse putoamiskamppailuun. Itse olen yhäkin sillä kannalla, että Fulham, Cardiff ja West Ham tippuvat. Cardiffilla omistajien sekoilut vievät joukkueen lopulta championshipiin. Fulhamilla sitten se, että kun joukkueesta löytyy niin paljon pelaajia joita ei edes kiinnosta, kuten Berbatov. Niin pitkään kun Berbatov jatkaa lönkyttelyään joutuu Fulham puolustustilanteessa pelaamaan vajaalla joka kuormitaa muuta joukkuetta todella paljon. Berban kaltaisen pelaajan kanssa pitäisi joukkueen pitää palloa, mutta siihen eivät mökkiläisistä pysty bulgaarin lisäksi kuin ehkä Parker. West Hamin materiaali ei sen sijaan ole riittävällä tasolla ottaen huomioon että vastaavalla materiaalilla operoiva Palace on saanut kunnon draivin päälle ja Pulis saa kyllä joukkueensa taiteiltua viivan yläpuolelle. Stoke ja Hull keräävät kotiluolistaan tarvittavat pistepotit ja AV vieraista. Norwichilla on paljon käyttämätöntä potentiaalia jonka lisäksi joukkueen peli näyttää joskus oikeasti hyvältä, samaa vois sanoa Suderlandista. Näin ollen itse valitsemani kolmikon lisäksi jäljelle jää WBA joka mielestäni voi pudota." Writer is Liverpool fan who thinsk Fulham, Cardiff and West Ham are going to relegate, but more interesting part is at the end where he says that: Crystal Palace has a momentum which will keep them in a league with Pulis strict defensive act, Stoke, Hull and Aston Villa will get their needed points to keep them up (his tone is bit negative). Then he says Norwich has lot of unused potential (meaning our injuries and RvW, Fer and Redmond) and that we sometimes look good for real (compared to other teams in relegation battle) and then adds that same could be said about Sunderland (meaning time after managerial change). This seems to be consensus in finnish forums quite much and most of supporters there in Premier League section are supporters of top 8 teams.

Only addition I see comming trough this winter is new CB. I hope we get one more central midfielder, but as we lack creative one, it will be hard and expensive transfer this time year, so can''t see it happen as there are no rumours out there suggesting us to be after one and Jonas deal hints that we are going to use 4-4-2 more or less rest of the season.

I think Hughton got both sub right today. Becchio is far more suitable for being "the advanced CB in last minutes" type player when opponent is sitting deep as Hull did. And with us dictating the pace of game Pilkington brought that little bit extra creativity in the last third. Decent game from the lads even thought I still dont agree with this 4-4-2. Makes us look worse than we are.

As I said already in those negative threads about him, he just is better builded for that 4-4-2 we are now playing. Made quite much difference in midfield at the start of the game were we really normaly struggle to get the posession. He wont be much of an attacking threat for us I think, but will give us more composure on midfield an bring some freedom for our second centre midfielder. Good solid performance from him.

Back injuries are most annoying ones as you probably could play with them, but you couldn''t give 100% and each time you over exercise it, it will only gets worse. So most likely he will stay out until they are really sure it is gone. As if he plays now and not healthy it would mean couple weeks more in injury list. Howson, Fer and Snoddy would be last names in my "unhappy" list as they are clearly highly trusted by Hughton. Pilkington could be, but he would be more unhappy about his poor DNA as he keeps shatter in pieces.

Heh and all Hughton-outers cling the fact that everything is due bad managing even when manager would do just what was asked in previous post from outers ^^ I have always been supporter of Hughton and I have said many times that Hughton is hitting his head on the wall until he starts either to play Hoolahan or gets us a good playmaker either for deep position or advanced. But I also see the positives. Outside of few games we have still played ok football even with our big flaws, but for example in Fulham cup game only thing I would have seen manager to do differently at start would have been sitting deep to prevent those goals. As tactically both goals were well covered, but players made mistake. Then you look what players were on the field. Two experienced CB''s and fullbacks. At least two of them are always in our starting lineup and Olsson needed resting and for CB''s we had only Bennett fit apart from Bass and Martin. Oh yeah and my pros: Good signings with right attributes and either lot room to develope or enough experience. Better and more developed football than under Lambert Team looks to be trusting his judgement Calm professional who tries to imply his own vision cons: Can''t get midfield working with strikers Lately seems to try please fans too much under pressure or is too desperate to stay in his own vision. We are not getting enough points at this moment, but I expect this to change soon as injuries are over. Doesn''t trust Hoolahan. So I''m quite much tied at the moment. I would change him for a clearly better manager, but I''m not one of those who would change him just for the changing sake.